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Pupil of the week term

Willow Class - Heidi N

Cherry Class - Loui

Larch Class - Eleanor

Oak Class - Poppy

Cedar Class - Elijah

Sycamore Class - J.J.

Mrs McIlroy - Theo (Willow Class)

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Whole School Attendance -

St Andrew - 97.0%

St David - 89.6%

St George - 91.4%

St Patrick - 96.4%

Whole School - 93.6%

Winners - St Patrick

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School Meals - New menu from 4th November

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School Meals - New menu from 4th November

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Reminder - School meals must be ordered from home for each day. Parents can order up to two weeks in advance.

www.schoolhub.co.uk

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Water Bottle

Snack

Packed Lunch or Pre-order school meal from School Hub

www.schoolhub.co.uk

Coat/hat/gloves

PE Kits - plain white t-shirt, plain black shorts, plain black jogging trousers and sweater or hoodie.

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We have had a lovely week to celebrate the end of term and Christmas in Willow Class!

We have continued to work hard in our learning this week with a fun Christmas theme for our focused activities!

We have written our letters to Father Christmas and created our very own Christmas wish list stocking, using the Smyths catalogue! Some of the children had HUGE lists! We have been building models of the toys that we would like, using a range of different construction materials.

In our number work we have been consolidating this term's learning using our Christmas stockings and counting out the corresponding number of presents. We use our magic counting finger to count each object.

In Pathways to Read and in Phonics, we have started to read Red Words. Red Words, are words that are not decodable and are irregular words that don't follow a phonetic pattern, but are important for children to read accurately and speedily. We say "You can't Fred a red" because we can't use Fred Talk to read them. The more Red Words the children can read, the more it will help them with their early reading and writing.

We have had such a lovely time celebrating Christmas! The pantomime at The Brindley was a brilliant afternoon. The children enjoyed their Christmas Dinner and Party Day, we even had a visit from Father Christmas!

We have made some lovely Christmas crafts and we had lots of fun making some Christmas chocolates and some magic Reindeer Dust to sprinkle on Christmas Eve!

The children had a lovely surprise with a Christmas Movie. We enjoyed a hot chocolate with a snowman marshmallow and some popcorn!

We finished off our Christmas week with a lovely celebration together in Church. Well done to all of the children for their performances!

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for your continued support this term. I am incredibly proud of all of the children in Willow Class. We have had such a fantastic term in school.

Merry Christmas to you all!

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What wonderfully festive week we have had in Cherry Class! We all had a wonderful time at The Brindley to watch the Aladdin pantomime. Our class elf delivered us some hot chocolate, marshmallows and popcorn so that we could have a movie morning watching The Grinch together. We had an amazing party with Willow Class in the hall where we played games and danced with our friends! A visit from PC Panda was also in the mix this week where he handed out prizes for the Christmas card competition! We can’t wait to see our friends and family at church on Friday to sign off the autumn term and wish you all a merry Christmas!

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Cedar Class - KS1 Speech & Language Base

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Cedar Class - KS1 Speech & Language Base

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A lovely Christmassy week this week with lots of exploring sensory play - water, gingerbread dough, baubles, glitter and paint. We hope that you and your families have a lovely Christmas!

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Because I am a terrible person at remembering to take pics of the fun things we do in class, enjoy some pictures of the children working hard, publishing their writing.

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What a fabulous end to the term as we enjoyed a lot of festivities in between completing our final write of the term.

The children really enjoyed watching Aladdin at the Brindley and have been working hard to learn their prayer for when we visit the church. They have also had fun doing Christmas crafts and enjoyed a visit from Santa during our class party.

Away from all the festive fun, the children have worked really hard - editing and publishing their choice of work from the writing they have done this term - and they have produced some wonderful pieces, making me very proud. Merry Christmas from myself and I hope you all have a wonderful time over the holidays. I look forward to seeing everybody in the new year.

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A fantastic Christmas week here in Oak class. From making Christmas cards, calendars, learning our readings for our Christmas Church service, and writing a Christmas message as well-we have been a truly Christmassy class!

We continued learning about decimals also, and published our writeaway tasks-our versions of 'The Lost Happy Endings'.

Finally, we made our own creepy music linking to film soundtracks by using Chrome Music lab. Merry Christmas and see you all on January 6th!

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Monday 6th January 2025

First Day Spring Term 1

Thursday 9th January

First swimming lesson for Year 5. Lessons will run for Spring Term.

Thursday 16th January

Special Lunch - Diner menu (details to follow)

Monday 20th January to Friday 24th January

Careers aspiration week. If you would like to come into school to talk to the children about your job please contact the school office to book in.

Friday 14th February

Last day Spring term 1

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We had 11 families who nominated a person in their local community who they thought would like a special gift made by our children. The children loved painting a candle holder and making a Christmas card for them. It was so warming to hear the stories from the children about their nominated person. Thank you children and I hope the gifts brought smiles and joy.

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This week's results are in!

Congratulations to Ms M, winner of £12.30

If you haven't signed up yet visit our lottery here - https://www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/westfield-primary-school-runcorn

Have a great weekend everyone!

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We are registered with HMRC as a Tax-Free Childcare Provider

To find out more see link below -

https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare

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You can get up to £500 every 3 months (up to £2,000 a year) for each of your children to help with the costs of childcare. This goes up to £1,000 every 3 months if a child is disabled (up to £4,000 a year).

If you get Tax-Free Childcare, you'll set up an online childcare account for your child. For every £8 you pay into this account, the government will pay in £2 to use to pay your provider.

You can get Tax-Free Childcare at the same time as 15 or 30 hours free childcare if you're eligible for both.

What you can use Tax-Free Childcare for

You can use it to pay for approved childcare, for example:

childminders, nurseries and nannies

after school clubs and play schemes

Your childcare provider must be signed up to the scheme before you can pay them and benefit from Tax-Free Childcare.

Check with your provider to see if they're signed up.

If your child is disabled

You can use the extra Tax-Free Childcare money you get to help pay for extra hours of childcare. You can also use it to help pay your childcare provider so they can get specialist equipment for your child such as mobility aids. Talk to them about what equipment your child can get.

If your childcare provider is in an EEA country

You may be able to use Tax-Free Childcare to pay a provider based in a European Economic Area (EEA) country. Contact HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to check.

Eligibility

Your eligibility depends on:

whether you're working (employed, self-employed, or a director)

your income (and your partner's income, if you have one)

your child's age and circumstances

your immigration status

If you're working

You can usually get Tax-Free Childcare if you (and your partner, if you have one) are:

in work

on sick leave or annual leave

on shared parental, maternity, paternity or adoption leave and you're going back to work within 31 days of the date you first applied

If you're not currently working

You may still be eligible if your partner is working and you get any of the following:

Incapacity Benefit

Severe Disablement Allowance

Carer's Allowance or (in Scotland only) Carer Support Payment

contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance

You can apply if you're starting or re-starting work within the next 31 days.

Your income

Over the next 3 months you and your partner (if you have one) must each expect to earn at least:

£2,379 if you're aged 21 or over

£1,788 if you're aged 18 to 20

£1,331 if you're under 18 or an apprentice

This is the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage for 16 hours a week on average.

You can use an average of how much you expect to earn over the current tax year if:

you work throughout the year but do not get paid regularly

you're self-employed and do not expect to earn enough in the next 3 months

Example

You're eligible if you're 21 or over and do not have a regular income but earn £9,518 a year. This is the same as earning £2,379 every 3 months on average.

If you're self-employed and started your business less than 12 months ago, you can earn less and still be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare.

If you have more than one job, you can use your total earnings to work out if you meet the threshold. This includes:

earnings from any employment

earnings from any self-employment

If you're both employed and self-employed, you can use just your self-employment income if this would make you eligible. For example, if you expect your average self-employed earnings over the tax year to be more than you'll get over the next 3 months as an employee.

Certain types of income will not count towards the minimum amount you must earn to be eligible.

These include:

dividends

interest

income from investing in property

pension payments

If you or your partner have an expected ' adjusted net income ' over £100,000 in the current tax year, you will not be eligible.

Your child

Your child must be 11 or under and usually live with you. They stop being eligible on 1 September after their 11th birthday.

Adopted children are eligible, but foster children are not.

If your child is disabled and usually lives with you, you may get up to £4,000 a year until 1 September after their 16th birthday. They're eligible for this if they:

get Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment, Child Disability Payment (Scotland only) or Adult Disability Payment (Scotland only)

are certified as blind or severely sight-impaired

Your immigration status

To be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare, you must have a National Insurance number and at least one of the following:

British or Irish citizenship

settled or pre-settled status, or you have applied and you're waiting for a decision

permission to access public funds - your UK residence card will tell you if you cannot do this

If you have a partner, they must have a National Insurance number too.

If you're living in an EU country, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, you (or your partner if you have one) might still be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare if:

your work is in the UK

the work started before 1 January 2021

you've worked in the UK at least once every 12 months since you started working here

This is known as being a 'frontier worker'. You must show your Frontier Worker permit to the Childcare Service when you apply for Tax-Free Childcare.

If you get tax credits, Universal Credit, a childcare bursary or grant, or childcare vouchers

You cannot get Tax-Free Childcare at the same time as claiming Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Universal Credit or childcare vouchers.

Which scheme you're better off with depends on your situation. Use the childcare calculator to work out which type of support is best for you.

Tax credits

If you successfully apply for Tax-Free Childcare, your Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit will stop straight away. You cannot apply for them again.

Childcare vouchers

You must tell your employer within 90 days of applying for Tax-Free Childcare to stop your childcare vouchers or directly contracted childcare.

They'll then stop the vouchers or directly contracted childcare.

You may have to give HMRC evidence of leaving the childcare voucher scheme. For example, a copy of the letter telling your employer you're leaving the childcare voucher scheme.

If you have a partner who gets vouchers or directly contracted childcare, they'll need to tell their employer to stop this within 90 days too.

Universal Credit

Wait until you get a decision on your Tax-Free Childcare application before cancelling your Universal Credit claim.

Bursaries

If you or your partner get a childcare bursary or grant or expect to do so within the next 3 months, you cannot get Tax-Free Childcare.

Apply
Apply online for Tax-Free Childcare
If you apply for Tax-Free Childcare and someone else already gets free childcare for that child, their 15 or 30 hours will stop at the end of the next term. You will be eligible for 15 or 30 hours free childcare instead.

If you have a partner

You must include your partner in your application if you are:

married or in a civil partnership and live together

not married or in a civil partnership, but living together as though you are

Their employment and income will not affect your eligibility if they:

are or will be absent from your household for more than 6 months

are a prisoner

You and your partner cannot both have accounts for the same child.

If you are separated

You and your ex-partner need to decide who should apply if you are jointly responsible for your child.

If you cannot decide, both of you must apply separately and HMRC will decide who gets a childcare account.

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What Tax-Free Childcare is, eligibility and how to apply

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January is a great time of year to start a health kick. If you're wanting to get your family moving more but don't know where to start then join us for the 'Encouraging Physical Activity and Understanding Sugar' workshop! You will learn:

What barriers stop children from being active

How to overcome barriers as a family

Why physical activity is vital in children's development

How the body uses sugar and why too much poses a risk to our children's health

The effects of caffeine in children and how it affects their behaviour

Book your place here: Free Workshop Eventbrite Link

Date: Monday 6th January

Venue: Online via TEAMS

Time: 1:30pm-2:15pm

This workshop does not require you to have your mic or video on, so grab a cuppa and sit back and enjoy the session!

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From January breakfast club will be reduced to £2 per child! No sibling rate.

Wake up shake up will not be taking place for whole school. This will now be part of breakfast club and will be included for all children booked into Breakfast club.

Club must be pre-booked and places are limited to 20 per day!

Bookings and payment must be made via School Spider.

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As a result of feedback from the recent parent survey and in an attempt to reduce the number of school apps from 2025 we will be moving all payments from ParentPay to School Spider.

School Spider will be used for all school payments and to book onto breakfast club.

All credit and debit balances from ParentPay will be transferred to School Spider in January 2025.

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Sycamore Class - KS2 Speech & Language Base

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Sycamore Class - KS2 Speech & Language Base

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We've had a lovely end to the term in Sycamore Class. This week, we have enjoyed making some Christmas crafts; watching Christmas films and spending some time in the forest. We have tried to keep our mornings as close to our usual routine as possible. In maths, we have been focusing on measuring and weighing and in English, we have finished writing our diary entries. The children loved taking part in our whole school Christmas lunch. Overall, a successful week!